Finchvia UnionNow boarding atVaughan Metropolitan Centre

Lucas Chen

Software Engineer, Zynga AdTech · Toronto, Canada

Union · Zynga, current role

Software engineer building AI tooling and ad tech at Zynga.

I'm a software engineer on Zynga's AdTech team in Toronto. I designed and led our internal tooling for ad-serving configurations, an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server and tools that let AI assistants work with ad-serving configuration, and a project that helps our games identify high-value ads. I also worked on an AI LiveOps agent that cut a 2–3 hour workflow to about 20 minutes.

Start the rideGitHubLinkedIn

MuseumSouthbound

Experience

6 stops · 2021 → Union, nowNext station King · Impact

  1. Museum

    InsideDesk

    Internship

    Software Engineering Intern

    Jun 2021Sep 2021

    • Found 50+ bugs through QA testing, validated bug fixes, and was the link between clients and the development team.
    • Cut manual tasks by over 30% with custom JavaScript Slack bots that automate the customer onboarding notifications.
    • Wrote automated end-to-end UI tests with Selenium and Python, cutting manual QA testing by 40%.

    JavaScriptPythonSeleniumSlack

  2. Queen's Park

    McMaster Artificial Intelligence Society

    Research

    AI Research Member · Hamilton, ON

    Oct 20212022

    • Worked with a team of four developers on training a humanoid to walk and navigate obstacles in a ragdoll physics simulation.
    • Used C# and Unity to train and simulate the humanoid.

    C#Unity

  3. St. Patrick

    Exchange Solutions

    Internship

    Software Engineering Intern

    May 2022Aug 2022

    E-commerce and loyalty platforms: a Shopify app on AWS, plus AR, blockchain and data-visualization work.

    • Made e-commerce client onboarding over 10x faster by building AWS Lambda components.
    • Led an augmented reality proof of concept for a national loyalty program, built with 8th Wall WebAR and JavaScript.
    • Raised a loyalty platform’s user engagement by 4% by integrating it with blockchain assets, using Next.js, Ethereum and the Alchemy API.
    • Built a real-time data visualization dashboard (D3.js, Snowflake), improving early error catching and data comparisons by over 10%.

    AWS LambdaJavaScriptNext.jsD3.jsSnowflake8th Wall WebARShopify API

  4. Osgoode

    McMaster University

    Teaching

    Teaching Assistant · Hamilton, ON

    Sep 2022Apr 2023

    • 1P13 Integrated Engineering Project (Sep–Dec 2022).
    • 2GA3 Computer Architecture (Jan–Apr 2023).

  5. St. Andrew

    Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence

    Internship

    Full Stack Engineering Intern

    May 2023Jun 2024

    • Developed 15+ UI and 10+ API production features for the Nexus Platform, using React and Express with TypeScript.
    • Reduced load times for user list pages by 97% by optimizing API calls and refining Express APIs.
    • Cut test automation start-up time by up to 98% by parallelizing the Playwright test suite setup.
    • Reduced API response time by up to 82% with an Azure Cosmos DB proxy that moved Express APIs to C# .NET database pagination.

    TypeScriptReactExpressC#.NETAzure Cosmos DBPlaywright

  6. UnionCurrent stop

    Zynga

    Now

    Software Engineer · Toronto, ON

    May 2025present

    AdTech team: AI tooling and ad projects.

    • Designed and led internal tooling for ad-serving configurations: an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server and tools that let AI assistants work with ad-serving configuration.
    • Worked on an AI LiveOps agent that cut a workflow from 2–3 hours to about 20 minutes.
    • Designed and led a project that helps games identify high-value ads.

KingNorthbound

Impact

Service notices · Zynga AdTechNext station College · Projects

  1. Service noticeKingNew service

    Ad-config MCP

    I designed and led internal tooling for ad-serving configurations at Zynga: a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server and tools that let AI assistants work with ad-serving configuration.

    • AI
    • MCP
    • AdTech
    • Leadership

  2. Service noticeQueenFaster service

    LiveOps agent

    I worked on an AI LiveOps agent that cut a workflow from 2–3 hours to about 20 minutes.

    • AI agents
    • LiveOps
    • Automation

  3. Service noticeTMUNew service

    High-value ads

    I designed and led a project that helps games identify high-value ads.

    • AdTech
    • Leadership

CollegeNorthbound

Projects

Transfers · 5 lines + 5 moreNext station Sheppard–Yonge · Skills

  1. CollegeTransfer to line 2Agent Platform

    ToolAug 2026 – present

    Agent Platform

    A control plane for safely delegating software work to autonomous coding agents.

    A harness-agnostic platform for handing software work to coding agents in Cursor, Claude Code or any other harness. The goal, from my spec: maximize architecture-approved, verified engineering output per dollar and per minute of human attention.

    Role Solo: spec, design and CLI (in progress)

    StackTypeScriptNode.jsJSON Schema (Ajv)CommanderYAML

    Transfer: case study GitHub

  2. Bloor–YongeTransfer to line 3TennisBooker

    Product2023 – present

    TennisBooker

    Books tennis and pickleball courts the moment booking opens, every morning.

    My parents had to set a 7:30 a.m. alarm every week to get courts at our local club, so I automated it. Members set weekly schedules in a web app, and a bot books the courts each morning and texts the results.

    Role Solo, full-stack (2023 version with help from Douglas Chen)

    StackTypeScriptPlaywrightReactExpressPostgreSQLAuth0Docker

    Transfer: case study GitHub (2023 version)

  3. SummerhillTransfer to line 4PlatefulAI

    ProductNov – Dec 2024

    PlatefulAI

    Mobile meal planner: pick meals, get a grocery list, track calories and protein.

    A mobile-first meal planner: choose meals and servings, turn them into a grocery list, and track calories and protein against personal targets. Our team of five built it as a front-end prototype on mock meal data, so the “AI-powered meal prep” step is a UI concept.

    Role Team of 5: app shell, Auth0 login, meal-planning flow, deploy

    StackReactViteMUIAuth0Chart.jsVercel

    Transfer: case study Live demo

  4. St. ClairTransfer to line 5CarpoolX

    ProductMar – Apr 2023

    CarpoolX

    Android app that matches riders headed the same way so they can share a taxi.

    CarpoolX matches riders heading to the same destination so they can share a taxi and split the fare, with an upfront fare estimate and safety checks for riding with strangers. Four of us built it as a React Native Android app on a Flask and Firebase backend.

    Role Team of 4: repo lead, most of the Flask backend and auth, core screens

    StackReact NativePythonFlaskFirebaseGoogle Maps Platform

    Transfer: case study GitHub

  5. EglintonTransfer to line 6Rest Day

    HackathonJan 2022

    Rest Day

    A workout planner that schedules rest days, not just workouts. Built at DeltaHacks 8.

    A weekly workout planner that deliberately schedules rest days, designed to use Fitbit sleep and activity data to decide when to train and when to recover. Willie Pai and I built it in 36 hours at DeltaHacks 8.

    Role Team of 2: Fitbit API integration, landing page, deploy

    ★ 2nd place, “To Work or Not To Workout” sponsor challenge (AI Endurance), DeltaHacks 8

    StackReactFitbit Web APIstyled-componentsNode.jsFigma

    Transfer: case study Devpost GitHub

Other lines

  • Line 7StudySpot · Nov 2024Find a place to study at McMaster: search, filters, ratings, favourites and a map.Live demo
  • Line 8UnPassword · Nov 2024A password manager built in one day for the MEC 2024 programming challenge.GitHub
  • Line 9API Resume · Oct 2023My resume as a REST API: Postman-only, rate-limited, with a joke for anyone who POSTs.Case studyGitHub
  • Line 10Ride Home · Jun 2022Mix subway sounds, chatter and lo-fi music into your own TTC ride-home ambience.LiveGitHub
  • Line 11Summary.io · Jan 2022Upload a lecture video and get an AI transcript to study from. Built at MacHacks 2.DevpostDemo video

Sheppard–YongeNorthbound

Skills

Network map · 6 lines · 41 stationsNext station Finch · Contact

  1. Languages

    1. TypeScript
    2. JavaScript
    3. Python
    4. Java
    5. C#
    6. SQL
    7. HTML/CSS
    8. Bash

  2. Frontend

    1. React
    2. React Native
    3. Next.js
    4. Vite
    5. MUI
    6. TanStack Query

  3. Backend & data

    1. Node.js
    2. Express
    3. .NET
    4. Flask
    5. Prisma
    6. PostgreSQL
    7. MongoDB
    8. Azure Cosmos DB
    9. Firebase
    10. DynamoDB
    11. Swagger

  4. AI & agents

    1. Model Context Protocol (MCP)
    2. Claude Agent SDK
    3. Claude Code
    4. Cursor

  5. Testing & automation

    1. Playwright
    2. Vitest
    3. Jest
    4. Selenium

  6. Infra & tooling

    1. Docker
    2. Git
    3. GitHub Actions
    4. GitLab CI
    5. Vercel
    6. AWS (Lambda, S3)
    7. Auth0
    8. Azure DevOps

Depot · where the lines began

McMaster University

B.Eng., Software Engineering (Co-op) · 2020 – 2025

Dean's Honour List (2020–2023) · McMaster Honour Award (2020–2023) · Courses: System Design, Data Structures and Algorithms, OOP, Software Design, Databases

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End of the line

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